The State Department refused today to condemn Syrian action in Lebanon although it expressed “concern” about the Syrian army’s capture of two high points on the spine of Mt. Lebanon over the weekend.
State Department spokesman Dean Fischer said Syrian control of those points which overlook the central coastal plain of Lebanon on the West and the Beka valley on the east is “a major change in the status quo” because they had been held by Maronite Christian forces since the winter thaw. But Fischer refused to say if the U.S. position has changed toward the Syrian role in Lebanon.
The Syrian army entered Lebanon as part of an all-Arab peacekeeping force in 1976 to end the civil war there. In recent months it has been fighting against Lebanese Christians.
Fischer said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” over the “escalation of violence” in Lebanon over the weekend and “the dimensions of the human tragedy which in (the Christian town) Zahle, Beirut and south Lebanon” has caused death and injuries to many people and forced others to flee their homes.
He noted that information from Lebanon is often “incomplete and sometimes contradictory. “He said he had very little information about Israel’s air raids in south Lebanon yesterday, nor reports of injuries or a dogfight between Israeli and Syrian planes.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Ambassador, Ephraim Evron, delivered a message to the State Department today on the situation in Lebanon. Evron would not disclose its contents.
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